Vote counting begins in Ghana elections 2024 as new president awaits

Vote counting has opened in the Ghana elections 2024 as a new president waits. Votes are already being counted after Saturday's general election in Ghana following an essentially peaceful voting process across the country except for fatal shooting in the north of the country.




The police say four men were arrested at Nyankpala polling station when an opposition MP candidate was prevented from filing his complaint, the supporters of the ruling party dispersed him after a chase.

Armored troop vehicles have been moved to restore order in Nyankpala,

The election day has been fairly calm, as Ghanaians line up for voting before the crack of dawn.




The voting centers shut at 17:00 GMT for actual voting, but the results of the elections will be known on Tuesday.




Land borders of West African countries were closed until Sunday evening in a step that a local correspondent said was for the first time.

READ MORE: vote counting begins in Ghana elections 2024 as new president awaits the second


Ghana will have a president definitely. Nana Akufo-Addo is already bowing out by an official obligation after serving the highest number of terms in office.




He can, however be followed by a known face in the form of former President John Mahama if he wins on the NDC comeback trail.




If he is to win for the incumbent NPP party, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia will be his main challenger. He will become the first Muslim ever to lead the country if he wins.




Other contenders include businessperson Nana Kwame Bediako and former member of the ruling NPP party Alan Kyerematen.

Some 19 million Ghanaians are on the voters' roll.

Ghana has only just passed strict legislation that will ensure women's participation in frontline politics increases, but only one female is a contender for president:

Nana Akosua Sarpong Frimpomaa of the Convention People's Party (CPP).




The other female challenger to the presidency in this election was Akua Donkor of the Ghana Freedom Party who died in October. Her name still appears on ballot papers because the candidate chosen to replace her was rejected.

A nationwide general election today brings 275 constituencies across the country to the polls as voters elect members of parliament.




Since the multi-party politics returned to Ghana in 1992, no elected president has been from either the National Democratic Congress (NDC) or the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

No party has ever won more than two consecutive terms in power.

A presidential candidate must win more than 50% of the vote in the first round to win. If that is not attained, then the two highest-placed people will go into a run-off vote to be held by December.




Voting for the first time, 18-year-old Serwaa Yeboah Joshebeth told the BBC, "it is important for you to vote to choose the best for your country.".




The fresh graduate wants to see more jobs, "not for me alone but for others who need them [too]."




Kojo Yeboah, 95, agrees.




"The next leader must focus on education and jobs for the youth," the retired university worker told the BBC outside a polling booth in the city of Kumasi.




"I benefit from stipends from the state at my age already," he adds.




As the campaigns ended on Friday, Bawumia declared of his main rival: "What is clear is that notwithstanding the challenges we've had, we have performed better than the government of John Dramani Mahama."




For Mahama, "it is a choice between the Ghana we have today and the Ghana we want together. A Ghana of opportunity, prosperity, and justice for all."




Ghanaians have faced very serious blows from inflation, which has been as high as 54.1% in 2022. It has then eased somewhat, but it is estimated that many thousands of people have been pushed back into poverty and living standards have declined, according to the World Bank.




This year, Ghana defaulted on its debt repayments, and the government is involved in protracted negotiations with international lenders in a bid to restructure the loans.




Unemployment is also at a high level, and for young people, whose opinions are essential to determining the outcome of this election.

Ghana heads to the polls amid deepening economic crisis

Ghana votes amid deepening economic crisis Millions of Ghanaians have gone to the polls in a presidential election after a campaign dominated by what many see as the West African country's worst economic crisis in a generation.

Polls opened at 7 am and will close at 5 pm, with early results expected late on Saturday. The first official results will be released by Tuesday.


Twelve challengers are likely to fight for a baton handover from incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo. Most of the challengers are incumbent Vice President and sitting New Patriotic Party candidate Mahamudu Bawumia and former president John Mahama of the dominant National Democratic Congress. Two fringe challengers run as independents: businessperson Nana Bediako and the ex-trade and industry minister Alan Kyerematen.


Bawumia, 61, is a former deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana who has served two terms with the incumbent after the pair were first elected in 2016 and then in 2020. Both times, the opposing ticket was led by Mahama, 66.


Just voting in the northern town of Bole, Mahama commended the smooth election process and went on to voice his confidence in winning the election. "In other elections, it had not been clear," he said to reporters. "But this election, everyone sees where it is heading."


Winning this election will necessitate a garnering of more than half of the votes cast. If that's not achieved, then the two top performers go to a runoff. Predictions have been there, partly due to two minor candidates, but people are still skeptical.


My argument is always that if the elections go to a runoff, it's in spite of these people, it's not because of them," said Joshua Zaato, a senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana.


The stakes are high: experts say Akufo-Addo did brilliantly in managing the Covid pandemic and introducing a free high-school policy, but let his people down in many other ways. Once a darling of the international community and one of the region's economic powerhouses, Ghana has faced high public debt, a weakened local currency, and high inflation in recent years. A cost-of-living crisis has severely affected huge swaths of the population, of whom one in five live in poverty. A long-standing source of anger, on the other hand, was the presidential pet projects particularly the infamous $400m (£314m) cathedral, which remains a crater.
All of this has caused much voter apathy or pessimism about even some of the youths at and around Accra, particularly in the western and central regions. Voters even express pessimism about the immediate future.


"The way the country is, I am unable to put a finger to the direction we want to move in," said Mary Ofori, a mother of two and food vendor at Accra's Kantamanto market, voting for Mahama. "Both parties don't seem to be leading us in the right direction."


Eva, a 45-year-old insecticides and aerosols seller, said she would not turn the blame on the government even as she admitted that the economy had been in a bad shape. "The bible prophecies of these hard times," said Eva who added that she had a divine confirmation of a Bawumia victory. She was thus voting for him. "The economic crunch is a global issue, and not peculiar to Ghanaians."


Both are northerners, but Bawumia would be the first Muslim president since 1992 in a country where three-quarters of the population are Christians.
Mahama hopes to be the first president to serve two non-consecutive terms, having already served between 2012 and 2017.


Some polls even put Mahama ahead of Bawumia but the ruling party claims that it is going to take the elections comfortably. The confidence comes from going into a contest against someone who has been given the opportunity before, said Haruna Mohammed, its deputy general secretary, said. He failed us [but] we have done a lot for the people of Ghana.

READ MORE: vote counting begins in Ghana elections 2024 as new president awaits candidates

This final campaign day on Thursday saw a spectacular huge rally by both parties held simultaneously at the capital. "It is a clear choice about the future and the past," declared Bawumia in his rally as he addressed thousands of partisan supporters at a sports park in the University of Ghana. "My opponent presents the past and I, Dr Bawumia, present the future for this country."


A short 20-minute walk from there, the NDC organized its own rally at a park in the Madina neighborhood, where Mahama called on the electorates to "unlock a better future" by voting for him. "This is our moment and now is the time to bring the change we need in order to reset Ghana," he said.